Egyptian and Hamas officials are quoted as saying the agreement was reached during talks in Cairo involving Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas, whose Fatah holds sway in the West Bank, and Khaled Mashaal, whose Hamas movement rules the Gaza Strip.

No further details about implementing the pact, which has been stalled since 2011, were immediately available.

Abbas and Mashaal held separate talks on January 9 with Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi before meeting together.

The talks came after Abbas’s successful campaign to upgrade the Palestinians’ status at the United Nations to "nonmember state,” and after Hamas battled Israel for eight days in November.

The Islamic militant Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in 2007.